BOSTON -- For two batters, Andrew Bailey was back.

Pitching for the first time in five days, Bailey blew 95-mile-per-hour heat past Jose Reyes and Jose Bautista to lead off the seventh inning. Just striking out two hitters in one outing was something he hadn't done in more than two weeks.

But the second pitch Bailey threw to Edwin Encarnacion was a fastball up in the zone, and it wound up in the center-field bleachers. The deposed closer all of a sudden was right back where he'd started -- and another Red Sox lead had vanished.

"We saw the swing and miss on the fastball up that's somewhat been his trademark, so there's better life up through the zone," Boston manager John Farrell said. "The 1-0 fastball to Encarnacion, against a good fastball hitter, I'm sure if he rethought it, he might have did it a little bit differently knowing we had (Andrew) Miller ready to go for the lefties behind him. That might be a different mindset for the role he's in right now. For a closer, it's always on the attack mode rather than managing the lineup."

But as Bailey has tried to work through his struggles -- he's given up five home runs in his last seven appearances -- he's trying not to make too many dramatic changes. He's too confident in the abilities that made him a two-time All-Star to change too much about what he does. That includes attacking hitters.

"We got the first two guys, and I'm just trying to challenge the third guy," Bailey said. "I'm not going to get away from the success over my career. I'm not going to change anything. I'm still got to be aggressive. You have to throw strikes to get people out. Right now, when they're hitting me, they're hitting me hard."